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Reports and Research

AL$ Reports

The CSU enables the AL$ program with grant funding distributions to the twenty-three CSU campuses so that they may implement projects to raise the awareness of low and no cost course materials and support the discovery and adoption of them. These savings' metrics are compiled from a combination of faculty using library databases, discounted bookstore materials and programs, online homework websites and open educational resources.

In 2016-2017 AL$ programs saved students approximately $36M in course materials' costs.

Since 2013, the CSU campuses receiving AL$ grants have been reporting the following student savings:

Since its inception in 2010, the CSU Digital Marketplace and later the Affordable Learning Solutions Initiative have saved students approximately over $240M when we include bookstores, the Rent Digital Program (no longer a program), and the AL$ campus grant activities.

CSU AL$ Research

Several empirical studies over the last few years have shown that open textbooks have the potential to increase student access to course readings without sacrificing quality. Adding to these results, this study focused on data from a new source: over fifty e-portfolios written by faculty about the use of open textbooks in their courses in several college and university systems in the state of California. We studied instructor’s motivations for adopting an open textbook for their courses, the cost savings to students as a result of this adoption, the impact of assigning open textbooks on student learning outcomes and withdrawal rates, and other benefits and drawbacks of open textbooks. Faculty reported that cost savings was the most important motivation for adopting open textbooks, and that students most often reported this as what they appreciated about open textbooks. The vast majority of faculty also reported that the quality of the textbooks was as good or better than that of traditional textbooks, and that students did as well or better in terms of learning outcomes and withdrawal rates compared to when the same courses were run with traditional textbooks.